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The Marine Corps is looking to permanently base an additional 51 aircraft in Hawaii, a move that would consolidate its Marine Air Ground Task Force training capabilities, according to a July 29 notice in the Federal Register. The Hawaii MAGTF is currently missing elements of air combat ability, and the move is intended to fill in these holes.

The Pentagon will siphon nearly $2 billion away from other accounts to execute the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program over the next five years, in accordance with changes Defense Secretary Robert Gates directed to the program in December, according to budget documents.

A Dutch daily newspaper has reported the Netherlands' likely new prime minister no longer supports F-35 Joint Strike Fighter procurement beyond buying a second test aircraft, but the story remains unconfirmed.

The Army is mulling reducing the number of RC-12 Guardrail aircraft it will upgrade to the RC-12X model, citing the impending fielding of the Enhanced Medium Altitude Reconnaissance and Surveillance System as one reason for the cutback, according to a service official.

The Navy's projection of a 100-aircraft shortfall in the latter half of this decade is not a problem for the Marine Corps, with operations to continue as normal even if the gap can't be made up, according to Lt. Gen. George Trautman, deputy commandant for aviation.

The Pentagon notified Congress today of a potential $3.5 billion sale of 18 F-16 Block 50/52 fighters to Oman, a deal that would more than double the size of the country's fleet and extend production of Lockheed Martin's F-16 -- an aircraft flown by two dozen foreign militaries -- until the summer of 2014, according to a company spokeswoman.

The Army has equipped more than 50 percent of its aviation fleet with automated maintenance monitoring technology under a new fleet management strategy set to outfit every aerial system in the service, according to Army officials.

Difficulties with the first Marine Corps F-35B Joint Strike Fighter short-take-off, vertical-landing test aircraft have placed the variant 16 percent behind schedule in meeting test points so far this year, but there is "no doubt" the program will be able to catch up, Lt. Gen. George Trautman, deputy commandant for aviation, told Inside the Navy last week.

The Navy took delivery of the first E-2D Advanced Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft that will be used for training in preparation of the platform's operational evaluation in 2012, and the program hopes to equip it with in-flight refueling in the mid- to late-2010s, Capt. Shane Gahagan, the program manager, told Inside the Navy July 30.

The Lockheed Martin division that builds the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which for years has broken key Pentagon management rules, will be scrutinized again in March by defense officials seeking improvement in the company's management score.

A blue-ribbon advisory panel -- dominated by Defense Secretary Robert Gates' appointees -- will recommend the Pentagon adopt dual-source competition for the duration of a weapon system's production run, a finding that could undermine the Obama administration's case for terminating funding for the Joint Strike Fighter alternate engine in the fiscal year 2011 budget.

The House Appropriations defense subcommittee has voted to include funding for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter alternate engine program, continuing the game of chicken between Capitol Hill and the White House, which has threatened to veto any legislation that includes money for the propulsion effort.

On the eve of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee's mark-up of the fiscal year 2011 defense spending bill, two House authorizes are urging their colleagues to fund the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter alternate engine program.

The Defense Department has delayed by three months a high-level Pentagon review of whether the Navy's P-8A program is ready to proceed into the production and deployment phase of acquisition, a pivotal juncture for the $32 billion program that will replace the Navy's venerable P-3 turboprops with a fleet of Boeing 737 aircraft modified to hunt submarines and, if necessary, fight surface ships.

The Air Force will temporarily preserve all tooling for the F-22A Raptor until it determines which tools to retain for long-term sustainment of the Raptor fleet and which to dispose of once production halts, according to documents reviewed by Inside the Pentagon.

(Clarification: Lockheed officials have said their opening offer for JSF aircraft during Lot 4 negotiations was 20 percent below the cost estimate prepared by the director of the Pentagon's cost estimates and program evaluation (CAPE) office. The original version of this story stated a specific figure within that CAPE estimate. This story has been updated accordingly.)